As the country continues to be haunted by hours-long blackouts, the Electricity Generation Company (Egenco) is from today, expected to shut Tedzani IV Power Plant for the next 15 days to pave way for maintenance works.
The company has since opted for diesel-powered generators to minimise the impact of the power plant shut down.
The development comes at a time the country is already experiencing prolonged blackouts after Tropical Storm Ana damaged the Kapichira Power Station dam on January 2022 taking away 129.6 megawatts (MW) from the national grid, which is about 32 percent.
In a statement, Egenco indicates that the contractor for Tedzani IV Power Plant, Calik Enerji, will be rectifying all outstanding defects on the plant that have been there since its commissioning in June 2021.
Part of the Egenco statement reads: “The works are crucial in order to rectify all defects before the expiry of the defect liability period, after which Egenco will be required to pay the contractor for any defects repaired.”
The shutdown would also necessitate repairing damages that the plant incurred during Tropical Storm Ana.
Meanwhile, the company has indicated that a total of 233.45MW would be available from other power plants that it has.
Meanwhile, the Consumers Association of Malawi (Cama) has described the development as unfortunate, arguing the current power capacity that the country has is already minimal and taking away 19.1MW would worsen the situation.
Cama Executive Director, John Kapito, has told The Daily Times that some parts of the country experience up to 12 hours of blackouts in a day and taking away some megawatts is an insult to Malawians.
“One begins to question where are the morals? Where is the technical expertise that we expected the country to be showing that we have come from far?
“It seems we are a learning country, and people that cannot even understand where they are coming from,” Kapito said.
In April this year, the government terminated a contract with Aggreko which was providing diesel-powered generators citing it as an expensive deal, thereby reducing the national grid by 78 MW.
During a press briefing on April 20 2022, Minister of Energy Ibrahim Matola dispelled fears that the pulling out of Aggreko would worsen the power woes indicating that Egenco would feel the gap.
The country, however, has continued experiencing power interruptions disturbing businesses that depend on electric power.
Source: The Daily Times_Monday, September 12, 2022_by Mathews Kasanda.